


don't be afraid of the beautiful and high mountain

by Leahelisabeth (fortheloveofcamelot)



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Bromance, First Aid, Gen, Hiking, Hurt Matt Boyd, Hurt Neil Josten, Injury, Protective Matt Boyd, Wilderness Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:13:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22331671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortheloveofcamelot/pseuds/Leahelisabeth
Summary: It only took a second for it all to go to shit.  One moment, Matt was taking in the spectacular view through the lens of his camera, capturing the way Neil’s hair glowed in the sunlight, and the next, he heard the sound of sliding rock and Neil is gone.Matt and Neil take a day to go hiking and very little of it goes to plan.
Relationships: Matt Boyd & Neil Josten, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 14
Kudos: 381





	don't be afraid of the beautiful and high mountain

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for @fallingin-like. They correctly identified my remix fic for the AFTG remix event.

It only took a second for it all to go to shit. One moment, Matt was taking in the spectacular view through the lens of his camera, capturing the way Neil’s hair glowed in the sunlight, and the next, he heard the sound of sliding rock and Neil is gone.

He dropped the camera, uncaring of where it fell, and scrambled forward to the last place he had seen Neil. The sight that met his gaze was not nearly as bad as the horrific scene that had painted itself on his retinas the moment he realized Neil had fallen. There was no blood, no bone fragments, no twisted body, just Neil, blue eyes open wide, lying on his back about fifteen feet down, gasping like he’d had the wind knocked out of him.

“Fuck, Neil?’ Matt shouted down. “Are you okay?”

Neil gave him a thumbs up but didn’t speak. He lay there a little longer, trying to catch his breath before slowly trying to push himself up to sitting. “Fuck,” he stiffened a few inches from the ground and laid back again, face contorting with pain.

“Don’t move,” Matt said. “I’ll come to you.” He moved a couple steps back from the edge to dig through his backpack, thankful that Dan had packed it and therefore he was prepared for anything. A coil of rope was stuffed into one of the side pockets and he tied it around a tree. “I’m coming down,” he shouted to Neil. “Cover your head in case I dislodge any rocks.”

He heard what he assumed was an affirmative from Neil and he backed carefully to the cliff’s edge. The climb was thankfully not straight down. He had to watch where he put his feet and test each step before he committed to it but he was making quick work of the climb.

Neil groaned suddenly when he was about five feet away from him and it distracted Matt from his feet just long enough for them to slip right out from under him. His hands tightened on the rope to keep himself from falling and he was treated to the searing sensation of all the skin ripping off his palms as he skidded downwards.

He landed barely a foot from Neil.

“That was graceful,” Neil snickered.

“You’re one to talk,” Matt griped as he pushed himself up on his elbows. His hands were on fire and he resisted looking at them until he could better assess Neil. “Where are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Neil protested. “I just need to rest a minute.”

“Bullshit,” Matt said bluntly. “You’ve had enough time to rest. If you’re not getting up, it’s because something is wrong.”

“Ugh, fine, I think my ankle might be broken. Or at least badly sprained. It hurts to move it. And I think I might have landed on a rock. The pain gets almost unbearable when I try to sit up,” Neil glared at Matt.

“Now was that so hard?” Matt grumbled as he managed to sit up the rest of the way. He left Neil’s foot alone. The hiking boot was keeping it stable and compressed for now and there wasn’t much he could do. Instead he put his arm around Neil’s shoulders to help him sit up.

He barely got him up off the ground before he felt some resistance and Neil started screaming. Hurriedly, Matt put him back down and started feeling around instead. Neil’s shirt was wet and there was some sort of stick, or maybe a tree root poking up from the ground and it had punctured through Neil’s shirt and into his skin.

Matt swallowed down the urge to vomit. “Neil, my buddy, my man, my son…” he started babbling.

“Not helpful,” Neil gritted through clenched teeth. “What’s wrong.”

“It seems you may have been lightly...uh...impaled?” Matt said, trying to keep his voice from shaking and not sure exactly how well he was succeeding. 

“Are you serious?” Neil asked. He tried once more to push himself up but Matt held his shoulders down.

“As a heart attack.” Matt started digging through his pockets for his phone. “We’re not walking out of here. I’m going to call for help.” He saw Neil begin to open his mouth and cut him off. “If you say you’re fine, Neil, I swear to god…”

Neil closed his mouth. “I’ve had worse,” he amended.

Matt felt hysterical laughter bubbling up his throat. “Right, fucking mob boss kidnaps you and fucks up your face, so this is just another Tuesday.”

“It’s Saturday,” Neil said, confused.

Matt dropped his head into his hands and his screaming palms reminded him why that was a bad idea. “Damn it.” He finally took a close look at them and that just made the pain worse. He had intense blistering from the rope burn covering the centre of his palms. Many of them had torn open already and were weeping blood. If he looked closely, he could see bits of rope fiber and dirt embedded in the wounds.

Neil’s face had gone concerned. “Matt, are you injured too.”

Matt closed his hands into fists to hide them from Neil and nearly passed out from the sudden pain. “It’s just a little rope burn,” he gasped, squeezing his eyes tight shut to keep the tears from leaking out. “You’re basically nailed to the ground.”

“Okay,” Neil said softly. “You should call for help.” He reached out his hand and placed it on Matt’s knee, giving it a comforting squeeze.

Matt nodded, pulling himself together. “Can you grab the phone from my pocket?” he asked. “I don’t think…”

Neil nodded and Matt shifted around so Neil could pull out his phone. Neil held it up to his face to turn it on and a careful blankness fell over his features.

“Fuck, have you been taking monster lessons? What does that look mean?” Matt asked.

Neil wordlessly turned the phone so Matt could see. He must have landed on it when he slid down after Neil. The screen was shattered and it didn’t matter what button Neil pressed, it wasn’t responding.

“Maybe yours survived?” Matt asked weakly.

A guilty look crossed Neil’s face. “I was charging it in the truck on the way here because Andrew made me promise I would and I...uh...forgot to unplug it.”

Matt is laughing again and he has no idea why. This is the farthest thing from funny and they’re going to die out here.

“You’ll have to leave me here and go for help,” Neil said.

“I’m not doing that,” Matt said. “No way.”

“I don’t see any other options,” Neil set his chin stubbornly. “You said it, I’m nailed to the ground. Either you stay here and we both die or you go and get help. These are our options.”

“Well they’re lousy options,” Matt said. “So I’m going to figure out a way to move you and then I’m going to carry you out of here.”

“Matt…” Neil started.

“We’re not fighting about this. I’m not leaving you.”

“We can’t just pull me off the root. Who knows what kind of damage that will do. I could bleed out in minutes.” Neil argued.

“I can save you,” Matt insisted. He stood and carefully stripped off his shirt. “I need you to tear this into strips for me.”

Neil nodded and fumbled for the pocket knife he was carrying in his pocket. It was a struggle for him to do it while trying not to jostle the root in his back but he managed to get it into several strips about two inches wide.

Matt looked at him, concerned. Neil’s movements were getting slower and there was a fuzzy look in his eyes that was growing more frequent. If Neil passed out before Matt was ready, this plan would fail.

“Can you wrap my hands?” Matt asked.

Neil nodded. He moved slowly and gradually became more clumsy but he managed to wrap Matt’s palms in a thick layer of fabric and tie it so it wouldn’t come loose.

“Okay, I’m going to cut the root free from the ground,” Matt said. “Are you ready?”

Neil grimaced but nodded.

“I think if you put your arms around my neck, I can lift you enough to cut it with the knife,” Matt said.

Neil gulped audibly but reached up with trembling arms to follow Matt’s directions.

Matt grabbed the knife in his hand and pulled Neil away from the ground. He barely had an inch to work with but he really didn’t want to dislodge the root in Neil’s back.

Neil trembled and clutched Matt tightly as he began to saw away. The vibrations travelled up the knife and into Matt’s hands, almost enough to make him drop the knife. Neil whimpered and Matt winced when he thought how it must feel to Neil.

It took far too long to get all the way through the root. Matt had just enough presence of mind to sit up and haul Neil into a hug, rather than drop his friend on the ground,driving the root in deeper.

They sat there, shaking, for a long moment.

“That’s one thing down. Now all we have to do is get back up to the path and hike back. Only two more things,” Matt forced a grin onto his face.

“Just two things,” Neil echoed. “Easy-peasy.”

The climb back up to the path was every bit as excruciating as Matt thought it would be. The padding did protect his hands from the rope but it wasn’t enough. If he hadn’t had Neil clinging to his back, he might have given up. He was shaking so hard he could barely stand by the time he reached the top. He staggered over to the backpack he had left and carefully set Neil down so he could lean against the tree without leaning on the slowly leaking wound. His collapse to the ground wasn’t at all graceful.

“You can still leave me here,” Neil said. “Now that I’m not stuck, I can defend myself if something comes along.”

“Nope,” Matt said. “Just one thing left. We can do it.” He propped himself up enough to rifle through their bag for the first aid kit. He patched up Neil as best as he could with the supplies, stabilizing the end of the root with a ring of gauze and taping that down with some duct tape. He then pulled out a canteen and a couple protein bars. “We’ll rest and refuel but we only have a couple hours before it gets dark and I want us off this mountain by then.”

Neil nodded and gulped down water thirstily.

“Don’t drink it all,” Matt said.

“It’s doing no good outside of us,” Neil said. “Drink the rest. You’ll need it to get us down and then it’s one less thing to carry.”

Matt was going to argue. He would only take a small sip and save the rest, but the moment the water hit his tongue, he realized how thirsty he was and he soon drained the rest of the bottle. Neil was trying to get through his protein bar but his face was taking on a decidedly greenish cast and he soon passed it off to Matt to finish.

“Okay,” Matt stood. He felt much better after resting. 

“I can walk,” Neil said, his eyes glassy and unfocused.

“I’m not about to let you permanently damage yourself because you don’t want to be carried. Our Exy star needs his legs,” Matt said.

Neil pulled away and struggled to his feet. “I’m fine.” He took a step and almost fell. Matt crouched and twisted so Neil fell across his back and put his screaming hands under Neil’s thighs. Neil automatically put his arms back around Matt’s neck.

“Oh, no, that’s not…” Neil said.

I made an executive decision,” Matt interrupted him and started down the trail.

Neil buried his face in the back of Matt’s shoulder and fell into silence.

“No sleeping,” Matt said, hiking Neil a little higher.

Neil whined wordlessly.

“Talk to me,” Matt said. The trail was treacherous and he was going to have to pay attention to his feet instead of monitoring Neil’s condition.

“About what?” Neil asked.

“You and Kevin watched the last Trojans game, right? Give me a rundown.” Matt stumbled a little as he stepped on a loose piece of shale.

Neil let out a pained gasp but started. “Fine. Trojans won the faceoff and controlled the play very early on.”

Matt tuned most of it out, paying more attention to how Neil sounded than the actual words he was saying. He chimed in with a couple noises here and there to keep Neil going but it was taking a lot of his mental energy just to keep his feet and try to walk as smoothly as possible for Neil’s sake. The growing, throbbing heat in his hands was also competing, trying to drown out Neil’s voice.

It took him a minute to realize Neil had stopped talking.

“What happened next?” he asked.

“Don’t remember?” Neil muttered. His breath was coming quicker and his cheek where he pressed it into Matt’s bare shoulder, was cool and clammy. He was going into shock and Matt didn’t know what to do. He had his basic first aid but there were no good options when he couldn’t call for help. He needed to lay him down with his feet elevated, but then what? Neil needed real medical attention and he couldn’t wait with Neil while his condition worsened. And if he left Neil here, he could die before he could return. 

Matt’s legs trembled and he staggered in exhaustion. There was no other choice. He had to keep going. They were close. Hopefully they were close enough to save Neil.

“Then tell me something else. Tell me about...Andrew. Why’d you two get together anyway?” Matt asked, desperate to keep Neil awake and talking.

“He’s Andrew,” Neil said, like it was obvious.

“Well yeah, but what does that mean?” Matt’s fingers slipped on Neil’s thighs and he had to scramble to keep from dropping him.

“He’s...just the best. He puts everything he has into the people he cares about. He would literally do anything for someone he loves. And he tells the best jokes when nobody but me is paying attention. And I know everyone says he looks so angry but he has this look on his face sometimes and it’s just...like he’s...like...he’s looking at me and I just...I j...I just know.” Neil’s voice was soft and fond and Matt’s heart melted a little. All he wanted for Neil was to feel the kind of love and support he received every day from Dan and he didn’t realize just how much Neil had in the Monster...in Andrew.

“I love him,” Neil said. “I love him so much. You’ll tell him?” His voice grew a little panicked. “If I don’t...he has to know.”

“You’re not going to die,” Matt said, drawing on his depleting reserves of strength to pick up his speed.

“Might,” Neil whispered, his voice slurring. “S’too...s’too far.”

Neil’s arms let go and Matt fell trying to catch him. He landed on stinging hands and scraped knees, unable to prevent Neil from slowly sliding to land on the trail.

“Fuck.” Matt’s eyes blurred as they filled with tears. It couldn’t be for nothing. He dragged himself back to his feet and pulled Neil up into a fireman’s carry and staggered on.

He was practically sprinting by the time the truck came into view. It took him an eternity to fumble the keys out of the pocket and then to lay Neil down as flat as he could get him in the passenger seat with his legs propped up in Matt’s lap.

Numb fingertips fumble with Neil’s phone as he struggled to get it open and dial 911. He somehow managed to communicate their condition and location to the too calm woman on the end of the line. He didn’t hang up but it was too much energy to continue speaking to the 911 operator and watch over Neil. He didn’t dare try to drive anywhere. His hands were shaking and his vision faded in and out. Neil’s chest stuttered under his hand and Matt willed his remaining strength into Neil.

He was not sure how long they waited, but Neil was still breathing when the trees shook from the wash of the helicopter’s rotor and a strong and capable woman helped him out of his seat while another two men strapped Neil into a stretcher and rushed him away.

Matt somehow managed to make it to the chopper on his own steam but his fingers wouldn’t cooperate when it came time to buckle himself in. The woman spoke to him but he didn’t understand her words. He could only stare dully at her moving mouth and shake his head. She strapped him in and began to unwind the cotton strips from his hands. He nearly threw up when they were exposed to the air. They looked bad and his body decided it had had enough of consciousness for now.

* * *

Consciousness was overrated. If he had any choice in the matter, he would much rather stay asleep. But there was light on the other side of his eyelids and the low murmur of voices and he couldn’t find his way back to the refuge of darkness.

He remembered Neil then. His eyes popped open and he looked around. Dan was somehow wedged into the hospital bed beside him, her head pillowed on his chest, and she was fast asleep.

He looked over to the other bed in the room. Neil lay there, face shockingly pale in contrast to the red of his hair, and an oxygen mask covering the lower half of his face, but he was awake, eyes locked on Andrew. Andrew was in the chair beside him, holding tightly onto Neil’s hand and the look on his face...Matt could actually see the look Neil had told him about.

“Neil? You okay?” Matt asked. Dan whined and buried her head deeper in his chest, not ready to wake up yet.

Neil turned his head carefully to look at Matt. He held up one hand in a clumsy thumbs up.

“He’s going to be fine,” Andrew said. “Recovery will take some time. But the root missed any vital organs and the danger of infection has passed.”

“Good,” Matt said, tears pricking in the corners of his eyes. “That’s really good.”

Neil brought his hand to his face to tug at the mask.

“Leave it,” Andrew said, tenderly tugging Neil’s hands away, the gentleness in his actions a stark contrast to his brusque voice. “Just go back to sleep.”

Neil nodded and his eyes immediately drooped closed.

Andrew watched him for a little longer before looking up at Matt again. “Thank you, Boyd,” he said.

Matt nodded. His eyes grew heavy again and he felt safe enough to drift back into sleep.


End file.
